Again we had a beautiful weather to play some cricket. Unfortunately the start of our game wasn’t so smooth with Liju getting hurt before the match and our Zimbabwean friend having trouble (as so many do) with finding the ground. But Rood en Wit were great sport and kindly lend us two players.

First innings:
Liju sadly lost the toss and we were stuck in to field. But we did so with great spirits. And after a decent start for Rood en Wit, Vivek unleased hell on the Rood en Wit batsmen. None of their first six batsmen scored more than 14 runs. We had Rood en Wit on 52/6 after 11.5 overs
After this our momentum was slowed by some good batting by Rood en Wit, which saw one of their batsmen sore too 34 of 19 before our living legend HJ stepped up and got him out before he could do anymore damage.
Rood en Wit were startled after this and only one of their batsmen scored more than 5 runs. Sadly we could not get Rood en Wit all out for under a 100 runs, because of some wides and errors in the field. Luckily we kept our cool and got Rood en Wit all out for 116 after 21.2 overs.
Stars of the first innings: Vivek Baja 3/8 in 5 overs with 3 maidens.
R. Afghanzai 34 of 19
T. Slingsby 17 of 23 not out

Second innings:
With high spirits we went in for lunch which we could enjoy outside in the sun. Mixed in with our joy, were some feelings of anxiety with the low target and our history against Rood en Wit.
With Liju out injured, stand in captain Pranay send the openers in with the message to take their time. This however did not really go to plan with a wicket falling of the last ball of the first over with Jaïr being dismissed by a well placed yorker.
Luckily for us Paul and Pranay took us from 7/1 too 48/2 taking most of the pressure away. Rood en Wits bowling took the rest of the pressure away by gifting us 39 extra runs. Paul really took the message of Pranay too heart and only fell when we were on 83 runs after 17.1 overs. Vivek and Julian sadly also fell quickly. This scared the boys on the sideline a bit.
But Prasad kept his cool and took his time getting us home with some smart running between the wickets. When it looked to take a couple of more overs before we would win the match Prasad smashed a ball straight past the bowler for four getting us over the line.

Stars of the second innings:
Paul Tops 28 of 49
Pranay Sharma 23 of 25
M. Zamani 1/9 of 2 overs
N. Ahmed 1/19 of 4 overs

Honourable mentions:
Prasad for his 23 of 47 not out and 2/29 after 4 overs.
Our Zimbabwean friend for cheering us on from the sideline to get the win.

Third innings:
It is save to say that we did not have our strongest showing in the third innings. Nevertheless we had some good talks about Dutch cricket with the Rood en Wit players and some even better tasting beers🏏🍺.